BANGKOK, Aug 2 (TNA) - Thailand's foreign minister said Wednesday he would telephone his Laotian counterpart regarding the last minute cancellation of a bilateral meeting to establish cooperation to fight bird flu.

Foreign Minister Kantathi Suphamongkhon said he suspected Laos was put off by reports in the Thai media alleging Thailand's cross-Mekong neighbour as the source of the kingdom's latest outbreak of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu virus in the northeastern border province of Nakhon Phanom.

Thailand culled 300,000 chickens there last Sunday after they contracted bird flu. Some 765 villagers, mainly chicken farm workers and people living near the farms, have been quarantined to monitor for
infection.

The local residents will remain under health surveillance for at least two weeks, Mr. Kantathi said.

Officials from the two neighbouring countries were scheduled to meet Wednesday to discuss cross-border cooperation to fight the bird flu outbreak, but Laos cancelled the meeting on short notice, citing that
it was not ready for the discussion.

The Thai foreign minister expressed Thailand's genuine intention to work closely with Laos to protect both countries from possible bird flu epidemic and said he was prepared to solve any misunderstanding
between the two nations.

''As neighbours, we want to build a close cooperation. Bird flu can impact people in both our countries," Mr. Kantathi said."Thailand is ready to support our neighbour to fight the virus, as we have both experience and funds.''

He said Thailand would try again to discuss cooperation with Laos at other upcoming regional meetings.

Earlier, a teenager in the northern province of Phichit was confirmed to have died from bird flu, triggering the nationwide search for sick human casualties as well as poultry.

The youth was the first casualty in seven months and the country's 15th death since early 2004.

This must surely put a strain on other sources of food since Thailand has a high volume of poultry sales doesn`t it? I suppose it means that red meat and fish sales must increase dramatically over this period?

When the bird flu first broke out a few years ago, it certainly did affect things, the demand and prices for fish and pork skyrocketed. These days when there's an out break, the govt. brings it under control fairly quickly, people still eat chicken and once it is contained it is forgotten about fairly quickly

CHACHOENGSAO, Aug 3 (TNA) - Two patients, hospitalised for human flu in a state hospital here, were put in an isolation ward on suspicion of having bird flu as doctors conducted laboratory tests to confirm the diagnosis, a senior health official said Thursday.

Dr. Thawat Suntrajarn, director of the Department of Disease Control, said that after earlier tests confirmed an infection of human influenza, doctors at Ban Pho Hospital isolated the two patients in a closed-circuit television equipped camera to monitor for bird-flu related symptoms around the clock.

''Because they are having a human influenza, further tests are need to confirm what type of the human flu virus they have and whether they also have bird flu,'' Dr. Thawat said.

The patients' names were not released by officials but they were referred to as a 17-year-old youth and a 42-year-old woman. Dr. Thawat said the young man had touched ducks as both he and the woman worked in a duck slaughterhouse in the eastern province of Chachoengsao, not far from Bangkok.

A local livestock official said the province has raised some 5 million chickens in farms but no bird flu outbreak has been reported in local poultry.

According to Dr. Kasiwat Sripradit, the hospital director, the two patients were admitted with high fever and bad cough.

He said that doctors and clinical technicians found no evidence of infection in their lungs, such as the pneunomia-like symptoms suffered by bird flu patients, and their temperatures have gradually reduced.

''We have only 70 tablets of Tamiflu in our drug stockpile. A suspected bird flu patient needs two tablets a day for five consecutive days. If we run out we still could get more supply within an hour from nearby hospitals,'' Dr. Kasiwat said.

Ban Pho Hospital has also set up special teams of doctors and medical staff to deal with suspected cases of bird flu and a drill is planned for September to test their readiness, said the doctor.

Thailand recently confirmed an emergence of bird flu which last week killed a teenage boy in the northern province of Phichit. He became the country's 15th victim of bird flu since early this year.

Officials said of 144 patients currently listed throughout Thailand, about 70 of them live in Phichit and were awaiting tests for bird flu. Other 74 patients live in Sukhothai and Suphanburi.

An outbreak of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu virus was also confirmed in the country's northeastern border province of Nakhon Phanom where some 765 people remain under close observation for possible avian influenza infection after close contact with infected birds.

Local officials said some 300,000 commercially-farmed chickens were culled last Sunday in an attempt to contain the outbreak.